There is no doubt about it: fragrance is a huge part of our lives. We are more influenced by our sense of smell than most of us can even conceive of. It can make us hungry; summon up memories that we had long thought forgotten; and influence our mood in a positive way. It seems there’s a lot more to the fragrances and odors we surround ourselves with than most people think.
It follows naturally that if the fragrances we smell are so influential, we want our homes to smell nice. That’s probably not news to you; many a home will have a scented candle or two, perhaps a few bowls of potpourri. At the very least, there are cleaning products which are fragranced so as to make each room feel fresh and clean.
If we acknowledge how important scent can be, perhaps it’s worth looking a little deeper than these superficial scent-enhancements. Why not try and infuse your home with positive scents and work to eliminate those that don’t pass the sniff test? If you fancy giving it a go, a fragrant home makeover is relatively simple to achieve…
Step One: Eliminate Bad Odor
You might currently be thinking that there isn’t any bad odor in your home – after all, if there was, then you assume you would have handled that situation by now, right?
The thing is, if we’re used to the smell of something, we have a tendency to be able to overlook it. It’s like smokers who can’t smell smoke anymore; we become used to the odor and thus our brain dismisses it as not worth focusing on. So there’s a chance your house doesn’t smell as good as you think it does – sorry to be the bearer of bad news!
You could try asking a friend or family member for feedback, but they might not tell the truth for fear of sparing your blushes. So how can you do it for yourself?
Look for areas where items are piled and not often moved. It’s easy for bad smells to develop in these areas, as they are not regularly moved around and thus smells can linger. If you have a junk room or basement that you don’t often use, these would be the prime candidates for this kind of issue.
The best remedy is to spend an afternoon decluttering and throwing away all the trash you don’t need, especially items like old papers (which can give off a musty odor). With the likes of samedayrubbishremoval.com.au, you can have all that unused trash and junk disposed of in no time at all, so this needn’t be a long, drawn-out job. Be ruthless, and don’t just constrain the rubbish removal to the junk areas; they are the first stop, but you probably have scent-traps in every room of the house. You want to get rid of everything so you can start the pleasant fragrance quest with a blank, odor-free canvas.
Step Two: What Type Of Scent Do You Want?
Here, you can do whatever feels right by you. There is no right or wrong way of fragrancing your home. While some fragrances might be seen as winter-appropriate, if you want to use them in summer, then go for it. No one makes the rules about what works for each season or time of year.
The one piece of advice it is worth following is to not over-fragrance your home. If you have four or five different scents all competing with one another, then it’s not going to be pleasant – they will compete with one another to the point there’s little to be achieved.
Ideally, pick no more than five individual scents, which you can combine together in different rooms. As an example, let’s say you pick:
- Lavender (it’s a classic for a reason!)
- Lemon
- Cinnamon
- Berry
- Orange
You could then use them like so:
- Lavender and Berry – for the bedroom.
- Lemon and Orange – for the bathroom.
- Cinnamon and Berry – for the living room.
- Lavender and Cinnamon – for the kitchen.
And so on and so forth.
Step Three: Choose Your Scent System
There are so many different ways to get scent into your home these days, depending on your specific needs.
- Scented Candles – the classic, but perhaps not the best choice if you have pets or young children.
- Essential Oil Diffusers – safer than candles, but often more expensive if they run off battery power.
- Wax Melts – excellent scent throw but require either electric or flame heating.
- Reed Diffusers – perhaps the safest and most affordable, but don’t have quite as good a scent throw as the other options.
- Room Sprays – very literal, can be overpowering, are frequently expensive. However, they are great for occasional bursts of fragrance.
You have to decide which is most suitable for your home, though you don’t just have to pick one. For example, you could elect for scented candles in the bedroom (where kids and pets might be less likely to venture) and wax melts for the living room (where you can keep an eye on them).
Step Four: Maintain
When you have decided on your fragrances and how you’re going to use them, then there’s little left to do but enjoy your house as a new fragranced haven.
Do bear in mind that scents can become overpowering, especially if you don’t air the rooms out on a frequent basis. At least once a week, throw open the windows to prevent this happening and keep the indoor air pollution to a minimum. This is particularly important if you use scented candles and wax melts, some brands of which can contain chemicals which can endanger health if the room is not properly aired on a regular basis. You can find out more about this at https://www.popsugar.com.au/home/Scented-Candle-Health-Risks-39485911. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, just take care when you do.
With proper maintenance and clever usage of fragrances in each area of the house, a perfectly fragrant home is more than achievable. Enjoy it!
